Imperial Tobacco HQ

Imperial Tobacco HQ - (credit: BAM)

Project Information

With an award winning BREEAM ‘Excellent’ £18m new headquarters with 100,000 m2 over 4 floors at Phase 1, and the £6m refurbishment of an old factory next door at Phase 2, the Imperial Tobacco project provided many challenges that allowed MACH to show what they do best. MACH Acoustics undertook detailed assessments and produced auralisation models to demonstrate to the client the proposed acoustic performance within the large open plan offices areas.

Project Details

Location:

Bristol

Architect:

AWW Architects

Contractor:

BAM

Contract Value:

£24M (Total)

Completion Date:

2013 – 2014

The desire for flexibility in the future meant that many separating walls between cellular offices could not be built from slab to soffit, leaving significant sound flanking paths through the raised floor and ceiling void. Stringent ER’s with on-site sound insulation targets for partitions containing doors, classic acoustic weak points meant that MACH had to work extra diligently. We produced simple auralizations demonstrating the effect of varying sound insulation targets and how to achieve them, giving the client something they could heard and understand, instead of just a dB target.

This detailed design approach to flanking through floors, ceilings and curtain walling extended to both phases of the project. MACH advised on all areas of the acoustic design, including reverberation time and indoor ambient noise levels, specifying cost effect façade glazing through detailed noise mapping and risk assessing internal M&E layouts in regards to noise from building services and cross talk through duct work, as well as noise pollution to local residents, achieving all BREEAM credits available for acoustics.

A Bristol based project for a Bristol based company, MACH were happy to attend site regularly for inspections and meetings as part of the scope at no extra cost. We’re proud of our work on this project and the finished building, hence we have made one of our many reports from the project available on our website as an example.